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Kenneth Branagh

Actor, Director, Producer

Once hailed as the "new Laurence Olivier," Shakespearean-trained actor and director Kenneth Branagh struggled throughout his career to balance his near-obsessive drive to work with the need for a somewhat normal ... Read more »

Once hailed as the "new Laurence Olivier," Shakespearean-trained actor and director Kenneth Branagh struggled throughout his career to balance his near-obsessive drive to work with the need for a somewhat normal, settled life. After his directorial breakthrough with his excellent interpretation of The Bard's "Henry V" (1989), Branagh had what appeared to many to be the picture-perfect life: a beautiful wife in Emma Thompson, a thriving career - thanks to his deft thriller "Dead Again" (1991) - and a reputation replete with an air of seriousness and unerring artistic credibility. But on the inside, Branagh claimed to have been going a bit mad - a realization exacerbated by his separation from Thompson and the debacle of "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" (1995). Later in life, he learned how to relax every now and then, but continued to push himself to greater artistic heights, sometimes to the point of failure, as with "Hamlet" (1996) and "Love's Labour's Lost" (2000). He rebounded, however, with a marvelous performance as a young Franklin Delano Roosevelt in "Warm Springs" (HBO, 2005), followed by an acclaimed turn as a brilliant but dysfunctional detective in the "Wallander" (PBS, 2009) miniseries and a return to the director's chair for the superhero smash "Thor" (2011). With his heralded body of work as an actor, writer and director, Branagh had long emerged from Olivier's shadow to be recognized as one of the more formidable filmmakers of his generation.

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II; title changed to Sir Kenneth Branagh

Played Sir Laurence Olivier in "My Week with Marilyn"

2011

Directed Chris Hemsworth in the title role of "Thor," based on the Marvel superhero

2009

Played a government minister in Richard Curtis' "Pirate Radio"

2008

Cast as a Swedish detective in three feature-length adaptations of Henning Mankell's best-selling "Wallander" crime novels for the BBC; also executive produced; earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a Television Movie

Made West End stage debut in "Another Country"

Played the lead role in the BBC trilogy "Play for Today"

Relocated with his family to Reading, England

Raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland

In 1994, Branagh declined an appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

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"I feel more Irish than English. I feel freer than British, more visceral, with a love of language. Shot through with fire in some way. That's why I resist being appropriated as the current repository of Shakespeare on the planet. That would mean I'm part of the English cultural elite, and I am utterly ill-fitted to be." – Branagh quoted to The New York Times, Nov. 9, 1994

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About working with Branagh on "Othello": "I haven't met that many people who are as talented as Ken and still manage to be really humble. I was freaking out about one of the speeches I had to do and saying, 'Maybe you should cut it out. Do we really need it?' And Ken looked at me and said, 'Look, man, I'm a pug Irish kid from Belfast, and I'm not supposed to be able to do this stuff either.' That kind of generosity, that kind of humility – that's who Ken Branagh is." – Laurence Fishburne to The Advocate, Feb. 20, 1996

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"People assume that anyone who'd do a four-hour film of 'Hamlet' must be a heavyweight intellectual, incapable of enjoying life. In fact, the thing I showed the greatest facility for in drama school was comedy, and when I left school I felt unless I made an effort, I'd spend the rest of my life in sitcoms." – Branagh to The Los Angeles Times, Feb. 8, 1998

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On his band The Fishmongers: "We're literally a garage band, that's where we play. It's fantastic relaxation, there's about seven of us in the group now and we're always having guest people in. It's a case of if you play the triangle, you're in The Fishmongers." – Branagh quoted in Empire magazine, May 2000

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On Nov. 9, 2012, Branagh was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his services to drama and his philanthropy in his native Northern Ireland.